The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Monday, November 18

Hello, all!

Above is defender Hannah Godrey, who joined the club this season. Also - shout if you were at yesterday’s North London Derby!

Ramble of the Day

Let’s start the week with two quick questions:

1. What is your favorite Tottenham kit of all time (or of your recollection)?
2. What is your favorite kit, from any football team at all?

For the first, I’ll answer with the Spurs kit I own: the 2015-16 third kit.

Photo by Marc Müller/picture alliance via Getty Images

It’s simple, but does the trick. It’s a punchy color that’s quite versatile, honors previous tradition, and it’s well designed to lean into the simplicity. It looks terrific on a field, and also on a supporter who styles it to their choices. What’s not to like?

Photo by Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images

My honorable mention goes to the team’s 2013-14 third kit, which goes with a strong navy and uses turquoise very nicely. In addition to the piping on the neckline, sleeve, and shorts, I remain a huge fan of the houndstooth detail on the shoulders.

Photo by David Horton - CameraSport via Getty Images

I also have a feeling the above kit, this season’s third kit (I clearly love a good third kit), will be something I’ll remember fondly in the future, but I want to give it a little bit of time before I drop it into the list of my favorite Spurs kits.

Now, for the second prompt. It’s a loaded question and as a result, I waited on bringing this question to the Hoddle until I knew my answer. As I was thinking yesterday, it suddenly came to me: the Nigeria 2018-19 home kit.

Photo by Eric Verhoeven/Soccrates/Getty Images

I will never singing the praises of this kit, considering I spent time talking about it with a street vendor in Madrid two summers ago. (I didn’t buy it.) It truly is an iconic design as far as football kits go: it was a subtle homage to the 1994 team that was Nigeria’s first to qualify for a men’s World Cup, while nodded to modern trends — The New York Times’ lead fashion critic Vanessa Friedman said the entire collection was a “very current Gucci-homage.” It also has eyes on the future, as Friedman noted: it has an ingredient that “make[s] for real dress memorabilia success: an individual identity.”

It also sold out at record pace, a clear reflection of the well-designed kit and collection. It was a clear moment in football kit history, and a great one at that — the rerun for the 2019 women’s World Cup was exciting for me and a few others. It’s one of the few kits I truly loved from the second I saw it, and now that I think about it, I think I probably need to own one.

tl;dr: What is your favorite Spurs kit, and what is your favorite kit overall?

Links of the Day

A man has been arrested after homophobic abuse was directed towards Wycombe goalkeeper Ryan Allsop during a match against Tranmere.

Eight matches were canceled in the Spanish women’s top flight as players strike over wages.

Today’s longer read: Will Unwin interviewed members of the Finnish team on the prospect of qualifying for Euro 2020 before the team secured a spot for The Guardian